Nazilli Edition: There's Something in the Water

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Sözcü Newspaper, 4 January 2017)


Turan A. just after drinking a quart of Nazilli water.

In Nazilli district of Aydın province, baker Turan A. (51) was
abandoned by his wife of ten years, Sultan A. (49).  As she left,
Sultan hanım took money to care for their children but Turan
bey went to the police station to file a related complaint about his
wife.

Sultan's lover applied threats and pressure against Turan to get
him to withdraw his complaint.  Then Sultan and her lover made
a plan to kill Turan.  The lover followed Turan as he left his
house for his shop in Güzelköy and at a bus stop put a knife to
Turan's throat, saying "withdraw your complaint or I'll kill you!"


Sultan A. just before drinking a quart of Nazilli water.


In the ensuing struggle, Turan was stabbed in both his legs and,
as the lovers fled, Turan was taken to a hospital where he
miraculously recovered and declared that "what they did to me is
dishonor! How could the woman who was mother to my children
betray me in this way! May they both rot in hell! I trust in our
justice system (!) and the court will do the right thing." Police
are searching for the escaped lovers.


Nazilli district is in the northeast of Aydın province.

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türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Sözcü Newspaper, 4 January 2017)

In Nazilli district of Aydın province, a police vechicle crashed
into a tanker truck and two policemen died.  The incident occurred
last evening when police on patrol were informed that a girl had
been abducted by unknown persons in a car with plate number
20 PH 196.













Was the tanker truck hauling Nazilli water?

The police car, driven by Hasan Özdemir sighted the suspect
vehicle, ordered it to stop and then gave chase.  During the chase
the police car crashed into a tanker truck driven by Haşim Karatay.
In the collision both Özdemir and his partner Yener Arslan were
seriously injured and both died at the hospital.

Tanker truck driver Karatay was taken into custody.  Police shot
out the tires of the suspects' car on 1324 street and captured
three individuals.

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//ed. note: lest we forget another recent Nazilli episode...//



nazilli for a Podunk, there's a lot of stuff going on!

Accursed Chess! Infidel New Years!

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Sözcü Newspaper, 3 January 2017)

cübbeli ahmet a previous TNT report on his wisdom.


  What a bully! Picking on chess players. Come on!

Ahmet Mahmut Ünlü, also known as 'Cübbeli Ahmet Hoca'
(Ahmet Hoja in imam robes), has authored yet another scandal
with his pronouncements.  Claiming the chess players (!) are the
worst liars in the world, Ünlü declared "a curse on chess players!"

On his program, Ünlü read from hadis (words or action attributed
to the Prophet Muhammed) and said "chess is worse than backgammon
and gambling.  It's better to light a fire than to play chess.  The person
who plays chess is the worst liar in the world.  When they die they
may not be forgiven. May chess players be cursed! Anyone who
looks at chess might as well be eating pork. Rather than play chess,
sing God's praises."

As for New Years celebrations, Ünlü tweeted "Why would I
celebrate the infidels' holiday?  Don't we have any holidays of
our own? What about Mevlid (Muhammed's birthday)? What
about Mirac (Muhammed's miraculous trip to heaven)?  Why
should we always try to be like them? If you celebrate the holidays
of the unbelievers God will have the infidels attack you."

Interestingly, in 2013 while he was Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan distributed chess sets to citizens who came to a meeting
in Kırklareli.


      In Kırklareli, before the curse took effect.

Times Are Tough, But Turkey is Still OK

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Milliyet Newspaper, 1 January 2017)

okey TNT keeping this important subject in the spotlight.


Tension builds as the first-prize fowl awaits its champion.

In Zonguldak, the final of the Okey Tournament held each year for
the past 39 years to support the local amateur football team
Tersanespor was held on New Years Eve amid colorful scenes
at a restaurant in the city.

56 people paid 50 TL each to participate in the tournament and
there were 4 finalist left standing after three days of competition.
As the final match was played a live turkey waited oatiently alongside
the table.


       The new champ gets his wish(bone).

The final match lasted one hour with Murat Özdemir (51) the
winner, Ayhan Otan (50) finishing second and Ali Ekşi (51)
placing third.  After taking the first-prize turkey from the hands
of Zonguldak Mayor Muharrem Akdemir, the champ had this
to say: "the important thing is to continue the tradition. This is
my second tournament, the first time I was eliminated in the
first round. Now I'm number one and very happy."

Thieves Edition: Thoughtful & Selective

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Milliyet Newspaper, 1 January 2017)


Honorary Adana Royal Globe Insurance rep: "lock your cars,
take your keys!"

In Yüreğir district of Adana province, Sefa Ş., a resident of
the Yavuzlar neighborhood, who is said to have a dependency
problem, went with his friend Murat G. to visit his grandmother
in Kozan district.

Upon leaving after the visit, the two youths stole the car of
the grandmother's neighbor, Bahtiyar Canlı.  Police tracked
down the car thieves at the entrance of a bus station.  In his
statement, Sefa Ş. explained that they had stolen the car with
the intent of abducting a prospective bride (!) .  In any event,
(the public-service minded) Sefa Ş. admonished citizens "don't
leave the keys in your car!"


                         Adana province

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türkçe links to original Turkish article


(Milliyet Newspaper, 1 January 2017)

       "Ahhh this guy uses Dr. Scholls foot pads!"

In Bursa, a thief who saw an opportunity during the afternoon
prayers at a mosque, searched for a pair of shoes among those
left by the faithful that would fit his feet.  The incident occurred
at the Erenler mosque in Yıldırım district.

The (discriminating) thief smelled the shoes before deciding on
his choice, then donned them and fled.  The police, acting on
the complaint of the person whose shoes were stolen, are
pursing the culprit.


                        Bursa province

Trains Edition: A Footnote

//ed. note: original article unavailable on the internet.//

(HaberTürk Newspaper, 1 January 2017)

türkçe Benliahmet station TNT report of 29 December 2016


Where did that pine trees oasis come from?

HaberTürk wrote a story about the pine trees surrounding the
disused Benliahmet railway station, 10 kilometers east of Selim
in Kars province.  One of those who read the story was Turgut
Ertop, who was the maintenance chief for the Kars-Sarıkamış
portion of the rail line from 1969 to 1975.

Ertop's wife died in 2011 and he began living by himself in
Malatya.  But he came to Istanbul to visit his daughter, which
provided a chance for HaberTürk to meet with him about the
Benliahmet story.

Ertop explained that he had planted the pine trees seen in the
photo of the station with his own hands.  He said that "when
I read your story I cried. I felt like I was meeting a child I
had raised years later.  When I went to Kars for the first time
there were no trees there.  I took care of those saplings like
they were my own kids.  Those were tough days but seeing
the story I felt good."

Ertop was assigned to Kars as the maintenance chief in
1969 when he was 26 years-old.  He talked about the effort
to plant trees at Benliahmet: "In 1970 Turkish Railways (TCDD)
began a project to protect stations from snow with trees.
I said to Ahmet Kışlalı, who was the TCDD agriculture chief
for the region, let's you and I take care of this at Benliahmet.
We had to bring the saplings from Amasya and Sivas by train.
We planted about 10,000 saplings and looked after them for two
years, especially warding off the grazing animals 24 hours a day."